1 MODULE 4: SOCIAL ASPECTS OF POVERTY AND THEORIES OF JUSTICE-I Social Aspects of Poverty Module details Name Affiliation Subject Name Social Work Education Paper Name Rural Development Principal Investigators Prof S Parasuraman and Prof Manish Jha Tata Institute of Social Sciences Paper Coordinator Prof Bipin Jojo Tata Institute of Social Sciences Module Writer Prof Bipin Jojo and Dr Devan Kumar Kuda Tata Institute of Social Sciences Content reviewer Prof H Beck Tata Institute of Social Sciences Language editor Mr Venkatnarayanan Ganapathi Freelancer, Pune Module number and title Module-4: Social Aspects of Poverty Keywords Poverty, Inequality, Unemployment, Development Summary The module attempts to presents social aspects of poverty starting from regional dimension of poverty, caste dimension of poverty and gender dimension of poverty. Further, the module presented causes of poverty in India with special mention of inequality, unemployment and poor performances in various sectors such as agriculture and industry. Further, the module covers price rise and Inflation as one major cause of poverty and government efforts for eradication of poverty through developmental initiatives.
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MODULE 4: SOCIAL ASPECTS OF POVERTY AND THEORIES OF JUSTICE-I
Social Aspects of Poverty
Module details Name Affiliation
Subject Name Social Work Education
Paper Name Rural Development
Principal
Investigators
Prof S Parasuraman and Prof Manish Jha Tata Institute of Social
Sciences
Paper Coordinator Prof Bipin Jojo Tata Institute of Social
Sciences
Module Writer Prof Bipin Jojo and Dr Devan Kumar Kuda Tata Institute of Social
Sciences
Content reviewer Prof H Beck Tata Institute of Social
Sciences
Language editor Mr Venkatnarayanan Ganapathi Freelancer, Pune
Module number
and title
Module-4: Social Aspects of Poverty
Keywords Poverty, Inequality, Unemployment, Development
Summary The module attempts to presents social aspects of poverty starting from
regional dimension of poverty, caste dimension of poverty and gender
dimension of poverty. Further, the module presented causes of poverty in
India with special mention of inequality, unemployment and poor
performances in various sectors such as agriculture and industry. Further, the
module covers price rise and Inflation as one major cause of poverty and
government efforts for eradication of poverty through developmental
initiatives.
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MODULE 4: SOCIAL ASPECTS OF POVERTY AND THEORIES OF JUSTICE - I
Social Aspects of Poverty
Objectives of the Module
The module attempts to presents social aspects of poverty starting from regional dimension of
poverty, caste dimension of poverty and gender dimension of poverty. Further, the module
attempted to presents causes of poverty in India, where the major causes like inequality,
unemployment and poor performances in various sectors specially the agriculture and industry
was elaborately discussed. Further, the module focuses on the price rise and inflation issues and
poverty. At the end in this module government effort for eradication of poverty through
developmental initiatives was briefly discussed to better appreciate the causes and its remedial
measure of the poverty in India.
Regional Dimension of Poverty in India
In India poverty and deprivation is not uniformly distributed across the States and Union
Territories of the country rather poverty is concentrated certain States like Odisha, Bihar, UP,
Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Rangarajan committee in 2014 estimation poverty rate for year
2011-12 accounts 29.5 % in India, while few states like Goa, Puduchery and Andaman Island
the poverty ratio is accounts in single digits ranging between 6 % to 7 % positioned at the top of
the poverty ladder. On the other hand some States, the poverty is ratio is close to half of the state
population accounts 40-45 % at the bottom in the poverty ladder from below– Odisha stand at
the bottom accounts 45.9 % while Madhya Pradesh stand 2nd bottom estimates 44.3 %,
Jharkhand at 3rd bottom counts 42.4 % and Bihar at fourth with estimation of 41.3 % (Rangarajan
Committee, 2014). If we go back to decade ago, national level poverty ratio for year 2004–2005
stands at 27.5 percent. The states and UTs with poverty ratio of above the national average are
Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and also the the newly created
states of Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. Of these, Orissa has the highest HCR of 46.4
percent.
If we consider rural areas, eight states, namely Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,
Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal are below the national average of 28.3
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percent. Of these, Orissa is again the poorest with Jharkhand being a close second position from
below. Finally, with regard to urban poverty rates, apart from Karnataka, all other states which
were below the overall national average of HCR which accounts 27.5 percent. Here too, Orissa is
the state with the highest rate of urban poverty. This is the regional phase of poverty.
Caste Dimension of Poverty
Historically caste phase of poverty was patently unchanging and it manifests where bulk of the
people accounting 88 % of the poor and vulnerable groups were SCs and STs and these poor are
largely live in rural areas (NCEUS 2007). The Xaxa committee (2014) shows around 42 % of
tribal people are poor in India. Incidentally these disadvantage and deprived social groups are
Tribal communities live in rural parts of hilly terrain in Central and Eastern India in the fifth
Scheduled Area around 106 districts among nine States in India largely infested with Left Wing
Extremis (LWE) activities and North-Eastern India infested with conflicts and insurgencies
(Raghuram Rajan Committee 2013 and Planning Commission 2008).
Therefore, poverty reduction initiatives stemmed from institutional intervention that has been
attributed to the policy of ‘noninterference and protection’ of tribal lands which have prevented
tribals from being alienated from their major source of livelihood, i.e., their landholdings. It is
not only the tribes were victims of the land alienation, but it is estimated that two-thirds of the
bonded workers who are chronically poor and subject to inter-generational transmission of
poverty are identified in India as SCs and STs in both of the rural and urban areas. The incidence
of poverty is the highest for STs, followed by SCs, and then by the other category. Specifically,
in rural areas the HCR for STs is more than double of the ‘others’ category (48.02 compared to
23.23), and even significantly higher than that of the SCs (38.38).
Gender Dimension of Poverty
The incidence of poverty among females has been marginally higher than that of male counter
parts both in rural and urban areas. As of 1999–2000, in rural areas, the percentage of female
persons living in poor households was 27 compared to 26 percent for males, while in urban areas
the corresponding percentages for females and males were 25 and 23. Females accounted for
slightly less than half (49 percent) of the poor both in rural and urban areas. According to the
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Human Development Report 1.3 billion people worldwide live in poverty, among them 70
percent are women population. Poverty in India, has a gender dimension is evident from gender
inequalities that exist in the sex ratio, child infanticide, literacy rates, health` and nutrition,
access to productive resources, etc.
Social and Political Aspects of Poverty
Poverty is not caused by any single reason. It is the outcome of the interaction of range of factors
social, cultural, economic, political and geographical and host of other factors. It is
unequivocally agreed consensus that the poverty in India is the outcome of social factors. It starts
from age old prevailing caste system, belief system, joint family system, gender differences, law
of inheritance which were elaborately discussed in the earlier modules. Besides these social
aspects of poverty lack of initiative on entrepreneurial activities, poor access to social sector
amenities like education, health, medical facilities, illiteracy seen as root cause of poverty.
General process of development largely bypassed to substantial proportion of people, especially
the disadvantage section of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribal social groups. Besides, the
economic and social factor, political factors inherently stands one of the major of cause o
poverty. Even after India’s Independence from Colonial regimes the exploitation was not
completely free, it is still prevalent in the governance and administration system. The political set
up is not seems efficient to solve the grinding of cause of poverty even 70 years after
independence. However, attempts were made to eradicate poverty under the Plan era of
development. The Fifth Five Year Plan raised the slogan “Garibi Hatao” but still the poverty
alleviation is enigmatic to Indian policy makers. Thus the poverty in India is happened due to
various reasons. Regional disparities, lack of investment, lack of proper implementation of
public policies, lack of vocational training and education, migration of rural to urban etc. have
also causes of poverty in India.
Underdevelopment cause of poverty
Besides among the major causes of poverty, underdevelopment is considered to be prominent
cause, which glaringly observed among the underdevelopment countries. Due to
underdevelopment a large proportion of the people deprive to meet the basic necessities of life.
Because of low national income and per capita income of the country people’s aggregate
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consumption and investment remains low, as results the standard of living of the people is goes
so low. Planning initiatives of government of India in the early years after Independence the
promoted steady growth rates in Indian economy, which is often referred as Hindu rates of
Growth. The term ‘Hindu rate of growth’ was coined by Indian economist Rajkrishna, in 1978 to
characterize the prolonged low growth rate at 3.5% under the backdrop of socialist economy. It
could not check the problem of poverty and reduce inequality. Even though economy railed in a
high growth path in the mid of 2000 onwards, but the benefits are not trickle down to the poor
sections of the society. Still the gap between rich and poor is increasing. Even though the growth
rate of population is coming down still the size of it is very large and it stands one of the major
cause of poverty.
Inequality
Further, inequality stands major cause of poverty in India, especially income inequality and
wealth. Even the New Economic Policies initiatives in the last decades of 20 th century in 1991
was paradigm shift of economic reforms on the line of Washington Consensus to reduce the
depth of inequality in India. But instead of reducing the inequality the economic reforms
widened the inequality among the people.
Indeed the inequality has many faces, it defined as the state of not being equal, especially in
status, rights, and opportunities. The concept of inequality is very much at the heart of social
justice theories. The analysis of inequality invites confusion in public debate as it tends to mean
different things to different people. Some distinctions are common though. Many authors
distinguish “economic inequality”, mostly meaning “income inequality”, “monetary inequality”
or, more broadly, inequality in “living conditions”. Others further distinguish a rights-based,
legalistic approach to inequality—inequality of rights and associated obligations (e.g. when
people are not equal before the law, or when people have unequal political power). Yet, the
inequality chiefly concerned with the inequality of outcomes in the material dimensions of well-
being and that may be the result of circumstances beyond one’s control (ethnicity, family
background, gender, and so on) as well as talent and effort. This view takes an ex-post or
achievement-oriented perspective. The second view is concerned with the inequality of
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opportunities, that is, it focuses only in the circumstances beyond one’s control, that affect one’s
potential outcomes.
Inequality of Income/Material Possession
Inequality of outcomes occurs when individuals do not possess the same level of material wealth
or overall living economic conditions. Development theory has largely been concerned with
inequalities in standards of living, such as inequalities in income/wealth, education, health, and
nutrition. However, the lens through which economists gauge progress in these fronts has
typically been income or consumption. Historically, development theory was concerned with
income inequalities, in so much as it affected or was affected by the economic growth of the
average income of the nation. The most common measure of income inequality is the Gini
coefficient or index (G), named after the Italian statistician Corrado Gini (1912).
Graphical representation of the Gini coefficient
The Gini coefficient has a value between 0 and 1, with 0 being perfect equality (all have the
same income) and 1 being perfect inequality (all income earned by one person). In most